Short presentation

I do research on consciousness, particularly as involved in artistic processes such as seeing art or performing music. I conduct phenomenological interivews to understand experiences as immediately given, embodied and contextual and interpret these with theories from phenomenology, enactivism and embodied cognitive science. In particular, I try to understand what it means to "lose oneself in a work of art" and how that it possible.

Besides for this research, I am engaged in various projects:

- I am writing a monograph "The Phenomenology of Musical Absorption" with Palgrave Macmillan.

- I am working with colleagues from the Nordic countries on an exploratory investigation on improvisation in artistic practices, as a collective phenomenon and as lacking in various pathologies.

- I am preparing future research on the relation between musical absorption, schizophrena, dreaming and sleeping and various kinds of meditation with THe Danish String Quartet, Kristian Martiny, Andreas Roepstorff,  Henning Drews, Josef Parnas, Evan Thompson, Nanette Nielsen and many others.

Primary fields of research

Phenomenology, Phenomenology of Aesthetics, Phenomenological Interviews, Qualitative Methodology, Embodied Cognition

CV

Positions:

- 2018-22: Post Doc.: Department of Musicology, University of Oslo.

- 2017-18: Post Doc.: Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen.

- 2016: Post Doc.: Interactive Minds Centre, University of Aarhus

- 2015-16: External Lecturer. Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics: University of Southern Denmark.

Education:

- 2015: PhD: Centor for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen.

- 2014, fall: Visiting researcher at Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney.

- 2014, spring: Visiting Researcher at the Husserl Archives, CNRS-ENS, Paris

- 2012:  University of Copenhagen: MA in Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind.

- 2009:  University of Liverpool: MA in Philosophy.

- 2008: “Soka University of America” (SUA). BA in Liberal Arts and Philosophy “Magna Cum Laude”.

 - 2006: August-December: 1 semester study abroad at Soka University, Hachioji, Japan.

Talks: 

- 2016: A Body of Knowledge, University of Irvine California. ““We-ing” in Joint Music Performance”

- 2016: Psykisk Lidelse og Kreativitet, Interessegruppe for Fænomenologisk Psykopatologi , University of Copenhagen. ”At miste sig selv, kreativitet og selvbevidsthed hos den virtuose musiker”

- 2016: Music, Mind, Movement, Meditation, Interactive Minds Centre, University of Århus. “Forms of musical absorption and connections to dreaming and sleeping.”

- 2016: Performance, Subjectivity and Experimentation in Artistic Research, Orpheus Institute, Ghent. “Absorbed Subjectivity in Music Performance”

- 2016: Aesthetics and the 4E mind, University of Exeter. “Is Musical Absorption a Question of Reflection?”

- 2015: 23rd Annual Meeting of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, University of Tartu. Paper in panel on Understanding Affective Phenomena in Psychopathology

- 2015: 2nd International Conference on Music and Consciousness, University of Oxford. Paper in panel on “The Musically Extended Mind”

- 2015: Intercenter Workshop on Phenomenology (Husserl Archives Leuven/Paris and Center for Subjectivity Research) Husserl Archives, University of Leuven. “Musical Passivity: from the Body-Schema to Intercorporeity”

- 2014: Memory, Music, Performance Day, Department of Cogntive Science, Maqquarie University, Sydney. “Joint musical interaction withoutjoint musical attention?”

- 2014: 10^th Conference of the Australasian Society for Cognitive Science, Monash University, Melbourne. “The Phenomenological Interview”

- 2014: Alternative Models of the Mind. Spindel Conference, University of Memphis. “The Musician’s Model of the Mind”

- 2014: Toward an Embodied Science of Intersubjectivity, University of Copenhagen. “Action Understanding in Absorbed Musical Performance - A Phenomenological Account”

- 2013:  Phenomenological Association of Japan: Annual Conference, Nagoya University. “What is skilled coping? Experts on expertise”

- 2013: The International Summer School on Musical Understanding: Philosophical, Psychological, and Neuroscientific approaches, University of Sheffield: Poster presentation on phenomenology of expert musicianship

- 2013: Annual Conference of the Royal Musical Association Music and Philosophy, King’s College London: Paper in tripart panel on enactive and phenomenological approaches to music cognition.

- 2013: “Self-Intimation” workshop. Center for Subjectivity Research,University of Copenhagen.
Paper: “Self-intimation and absorption in the expert musician”

- 2013: “Representationalism & Anti-Representationalism” workshop. Norwegian University of Science and Technology: “Between representational and anti-representational: The immersed musician”

- 2013: “Musikfagligt Seminar”. Dept. of musicology, University of Aarhus.
Paper: “At miste sig selv. Musik og skizofeni”

- 2013:  Guest lecture at “Musik og Betydning”: MA class in musicology taught by Dr. Ole Kühl, University of Aarhus.

- 2013: Guest lecture at “Doing Practice, Making Meaning”: MA class in sports science taught by prof. Susanne Ravn, University of Southern Denmark. 

- 2012 October 23^rd: Phenomenology Research Seminar at Center for Subjectivity Research (PRS), University of Copenhagen. Paper: “Contours of a Phenomenology of Expert Musicianship”

- 2012 May 24^th: “Music in the Brain” seminar at Center for Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, University of Aarhus. Paper: “Like a rag doll mindlessly wobbling in sound”: Intentionality and motor-consciousness in performing musicians.

- 2012 June 1^st: PRS. Paper: The Phenomenology of Expert Musicianship.

- 2012 June 8^th: Annual conference of the Nordic Society for Phenomenology at University of Olso. Paper: Clark and Phenomenology: Is there a Self somewhere in the Extended Mind?

 - 2012, Febraury 19^th, Soka Education Conference at SokaUniversity of America. Paper: Soka Education, Virtue Ethics and Phenomenology.

  - 2011, June 7^th: PRS. Paper: “Gibson, Chemero and Beyond: A Layered Approach to Perception.”

   - 2011, April 28^th-30^th: Annual conference of the Nordic Society for Phenomenology at University of Iceland. Paper: “Non-Intentional Conscious States? Merleau-Ponty and the Body Schema of the Expert Musician”.

 - 2011, February 19^th-21^st: Soka Education Conference at SokaUniversity of America. Papers: “An Overview of the Editions of Soka Kyoikugaku Takei”, “Conditions of Creativity”. Workshop: “Applying philosophical doubt”.

 - 2009, April 3rd-5th: Annual conference of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain at New College, Oxford. Paper: “Conditions of Creativity: A Reading of Descartes, Kant, and Leibniz in the Context of Soka Education”

- 2008, July 30 – August 5^th: “World Congress of Philosophy” in Seoul, South Korea. Paper: “A Bergsonian Fortification of Husserl’s Phenomenology”.

- 2004, November 20^th – 22^nd: “Two Hundred Years After Kant” conference in Tehran, Iran. Paper: “Kant’s Perpetual Peace and its Practical Actualization”.

Organizational Experience:

- 2010-14. Practical organizer of Summer Schools and major international conferences at Center for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen.  See also: http://cfs.ku.dk/multimedia/summerschool/

- 2005-08: Co-founder and organizer of the annual “Soka Education Conference”, Soka University of America and of the research initiative “Soka Education Student Research Project”. 

Vocational Experience:

 - 2010-12: Student assistant at Center for Subjectivity Research (conference organization and book formatting, e.g., Overgaard, S. and Luft, S. (eds) (2011) The Routledge Companion to Phenomenology.

 - 2010, Jan-Jun: Conscientious Objector working as conference assistant at Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS).

Memberships:

 - Nordic Society for Phenomenology.

Other interests:

I practice Buddhism and enjoy both the meditative practice and the related philosophical studies. I play the cello on an amateur level. I enjoy cooking, running and birdwatching.

Knowledge of languages

- Fluent in Danish, English and French.

- Some ability in German and Japanese.

- Superficial knowledge of Latin and Homeric Greek.